Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, called Il Viterbese

Although Romanelli spent the majority of his career in Rome, where he enjoyed extensive patronage from the Barberini family, this work relates to his most important French commission. In 1646, Cardinal Jules Mazarin invited the artist to Paris to decorate the new galleries of the Hôtel de Chevry-Tubeuf (now the Galerie Mazarine in the Bibliothèque Nationale), intended to house Mazarin's impressive art collection. Romanelli decorated the ceiling with mythological scenes and allegorical figures framed in gilt stucco. Among them is a Narcissus that relates closely to the present work: though the composition is reversed, the figure's pose, with his impressively foreshortened head, and drapery all correspond. 

According to Ovid's Metamorphoses (3:339-510), the nymph Echo fell madly in love with the handsome Narcissus. As punishment for spurning her advances, he was condemned to fall in love with his own reflection. Engrossed by his likeness, the rapt Narcissus raises his left hand, as though about to brush back his auburn locks. The copper medium is particularly suited to the subject as the support's sheen glistens much as Narcissus's own reflection would have in a pool of water.